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Hannity: Media are addicts that crave their next Trump fix
Los Angeles’ large Iranian community cheers anti-regime protests (reuters, Jan 4, 2018)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-rallies-los-angeles/los-angeles-large-iranian-community-cheers-anti-regime-protests-idUKKBN1ET0BS?rpc=401&
“LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Many in Los Angeles’ Iranian expatriate community, the largest in the United States, are heartened by anti-government street protests back home but want to make sure international focus stays on what they see as a struggle for democracy.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and are concentrated in a neighborhood on the city’s west side nicknamed “Tehrangeles” dotted with Persian shops and restaurants. The community is welcoming support for the protesters from political leaders of both parties in the United States…”
Algerian defence minister says 91 jihadists killed in 2017 (ansamed, Jan 3, 2018)
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2018/01/03/algerian-defence-minister-says-91-jihadists-killed-in-2017_f1f663f7-941c-4f7f-83fb-31ce2c9ace8b.html
“The Algerian Defence Ministry said Wednesday in a statement on its fight against terrorism that Algerian armed forces killed 90 terrorists in 2017, while 40 terrorists were arrested and 30 surrendered.
Algerian armed forces in 2017 found 409 jihadist refuges and seized 42.4 tons of chemical material for making explosives, as well as two SPG-9 cannons, 17 homemade cannons, five Hawn mortars, 10 PRG-7 rocket launchers, six RPG-2 rocket launchers and 581 relative munitions.
They also seized 286 Kalashnikov rifles, 64 Simonov semi-automatic rifles, 25 automatic pistols, and about 100 other firearms of various types and calibres.
Algeria has had to deal with “residual” terrorist groups from abroad, the Defence Ministry statement said.”
French police take to streets in protest after ‘savage’ New Year attacks (thelocal, Jan 3, 2018)
https://www.thelocal.fr/20180103/french-police-protest-over-savage-new-year-attacks
“French police officers have taken to the streets in cities across France in protest against the “savage” attacks on their colleagues over New Year demanding more support from the government.
Members of France’s police force voiced their anger over the events of New Year’s Eve which saw several officers involved in violent incidents.
These included a policewoman being repeatedly kicked and beaten in a “savage” assault that was filmed and posted on social media (see video below) in the southeastern Paris suburb of Champigny-sur-Marne.
About 100 officers demonstrated in front of the suburb’s police station on Tuesday afternoon, holding flags of France’s police trade union Alliance and waving banners with messages such as “Stop the anti-cop hatred” and “Proud to be police”.
“It’s not normal for police to be beaten up like that,” said Alain, 55, in front of the police station in Champigny, where about 100 police gathered at the Alliance union’s call.
Police also protested in Lille, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Bordeaux.
And on Tuesday evening around 70 people gathered at the Trocadero in Paris responding to a call from the association, “Angry Female Police Officers”.
“We want to challenge policies on the growing evil of hatred for police officers,” Perrine Sallé, spokesperson for the association told AFP.
Some French politicians have voiced their support for the country’s police force.
“Violence and a lack of respect for the authority of the state have become commonplace,” said Bruno Retailleau from the right wing Les Republicains party.
Figures show that half of the 4,079 gendarmes injured during interventions in 2016 were assaulted and the number of police injuries caused by weapons was up 60 percent, according to Le Parisien…”
US Muslim Population Projected to Double by 2050 – Report (sputninkews, Jan 4, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801041060504419-usa-muslim-population-estimates-report/
“WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The number of Muslims living in the United States is expected to more than double in just over three decades, a PEW Research Center report revealed on Wednesday.
“By 2050, the US Muslim population is projected to reach 8.1 million, or 2.1 percent of the nation’s total population — nearly twice the share of today,” the report said.
In 2017 there were roughly 3.45 million Muslims living in the United Sates, making up 1.1% of the total population, according to the report.
Estimating the Muslim population is difficult, in part because the US Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion, meaning there is no official government count, the report said.
Since 2011, the Muslim population has grown by roughly 100,000 per year, driven both by higher fertility rates among Muslim Americans as well as the continued migration of Muslims to the United States, according to the report.
PEW based its report on a 2017 survey, which reported on the prevalence of Muslims among immigrants and other demographic groups, combined with Census Bureau data on the number of people in each group, the report said.”
I live in suburban NY. Yesterday I had my hair done by a woman from Pakistan who told me she has 9 (NINE) children. She also told me that she and her husband travel quite a bit to the Middle East, especially Dubai. I have no idea what these people do for a living that enables them to house their family in one of America’s priciest suburbs- Westchester county.
Hi Eeyore and readers of Vladtepesblog,
Chelsea Clinton Denies Worshiping Satan
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/03/chelsea-clinton-denies-worshiping-satan/?utm_medium=email
Thank You.
North Korea accidentally hit one of its own cities with a missile, report says
In its relentless pursuit of nuclear strength, North Korea’s first land target may have actually been itself. The Diplomat reported Wednesday that an intermediate range ballistic missile launched by the regime last spring accidentally hit the city of Tokchon, which has a population of more than 200,000.
The missile was launched from an airfield just over 40 miles north of North Korea’s capital city of Pyongyang. An unnamed U.S. official explained to The Diplomat that due to an engine malfunction, the projectile made it only a minute into its test flight and traveled about 25 miles northeast before hitting the ground.
The Diplomat cross-referenced the failed missile’s approximate landing site with Google Earth and other satellite imaging to find that the suspected landing area did indeed seem to show signs of “considerable damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings.” Several structures appeared damaged in satellite images, reportedly by debris from the failed launch.
While there have been no confirmed reports of deaths in Tokchon as a result of the failed missile test, the images published by The Diplomat seem to show that the missile came perilously close to exploding in more densely inhabited areas, marking the risk of test launches. North Korea has launched two ballistic missiles since August, both of which flew over Japan and landed cleanly in the Pacific Ocean — but one concerning possibility put forward by The Diplomat is that a future missile could explode prematurely over Japan, which would “spark a serious crisis in Northeast Asia.”
[Nelson Muntz]
Haw haw!
[/Nelson Muntz]
Russia Says U.S. Can’t Criticize Iran Because It Crushed Occupy Wall Street and Ferguson
Russia has hit out at the U.S. over its stance on the deadly protests in Iran—comparing the Iranian response to the demonstrations with the American authorities’ reaction to Occupy Wall Street and the Ferguson riots.
The Russian government has repeatedly tried to play down the unrest in Iran and issued its latest rebuke after Washington’s top envoy to the U.N. praised the demonstrations as a cry “for freedom” and vowed to raise the issue at the Security Council.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called on “all freedom-loving people” to “not be silent” and encourage the anti-government protests in Iran.
“This is the precise picture of a long oppressed people rising up against their dictators. The international community has a role to play on this. The freedoms that are enshrined in the United Nations charter are under attack in Iran,” she said.
Haley’s comments led to an angry reaction in Moscow.
“There is no doubt that the U.S. delegation [to the U.N.] has something to tell the world,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
“For example, Nikki Haley can share America’s experience in breaking up protests, going into detail about how, say, the mass arrests and the stifling of the Occupy Wall Street movement happened or how Ferguson was ‘quelled,’” she added.
The Ferguson riots erupted in Missouri after the police shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown in 2014, while the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests took aim at income inequality. Both U.S. protests were among the most serious in recent history, leading to clashes with police and arrests.
At least 22 people have been reported dead in Iran since the demonstrations began last week, and at least 450 people have been arrested in the capital, Tehran, alone.
Protesters claim authorities have fired tear gas, while the Iranian government has also issued blackouts of social media networks used by protest organizers, including Telegram and Instagram, as a temporary move to stifle the surge.
Zakharova’s comments have been shared on social media by Moscow’s delegation in the U.N., as the Russian government continues to voice disapproval at the notion that the tide of protests show a push for change in Tehran. Iran is one of Russia’s closest partners in the Middle East, joining forces in 2015 to restore mutual ally Bashar al-Assad’s once ailing control over Syria.
Russia’s and Iran’s militaries have boasted that their ability to bring back control of Syrian lands from both anti-government militants and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was a more effective intervention than the U.S.-led coalition.
While Moscow has not entirely backed Iran’s accusation that the nationwide protests are organized by Tehran’s “enemies,” Russian officials have derided any modicum of backing for the demonstrations. Moscow posted a statement earlier this week warning the U.S. that interference in the unrest was “inadmissible.”
“Haley, once involved in ‘peace and security’ in Syria, is now concerned about the ‘peace, security and freedom’ in Iran,” Russian Senator Alexey Pushkov, a frequent anti-Western firebrand, wrote on Twitter. “In other words—about regime change.”
The U.S. Department of State has issued messages of support for the protesters on social media via its Farsi-language account. Haley has dismissed any suggestion that the anti-government protests, which snowballed from ones about high prices and corruption, are part of a U.S. plan.
“Right now we’re going to have conversations with the Security Council and see what we need to do to have an emergency session,” Haley said on Tuesday, CNN reported. “One way or another, we will have a meeting on what is happening in Iran and their protests and their fight for freedom.”
NorseRadish: Furgeson? Occupy Wall Street? … WTF?!?
How does the justifiable self-defense homicide by a police officer against a violent assailant (regardless of race), or a bunch of self-entitled rich kids whining about another bunch of self-entitled rich executives have any comparison to Iran’s Persian population rebelling against ii’s Shiite oppressors?!?
If this is Russia’s way of pandering to Western Liberals, it’s making a yuge mistake.
I am with you, there is no comparison between either of the two US events and what is happening in Iran.
Video: “U.S. WOMAN STABBED 14 TIMES BY SOMALI EXPLODES POLICE NARRATIVE” By Leo Hohmann – January 3, 2018
http://www.wnd.com/2018/01/u-s-woman-stabbed-14-times-by-somali-explodes-police-narrative/
Tech giant is rolling out new robots to replace workers in hotels, airports and supermarkets
A Korean tech giant on Thursday announced new robots that take aim squarely at the jobs of many services industry workers around the globe.
There have long been predictions that advances in artificial intelligence and automation could end up eliminating millions of jobs over time, and tech companies have been testing robots to carry out a variety of tasks — from working in a pizza parlor to making deliveries that could greatly affect the services industry in the future.
For its part, South Korean giant LG Electronics is the latest company that is planning to sell robots to solve tasks currently completed by humans.
On Thursday, LG said it will showcase three new “concept robots” at the global consumer electronics show, CES, in Las Vegas next week. Those robots are designed for commercial use at hotels, airports and supermarkets, according to the company. An LG spokesman later told CNBC that the robots are still “concept” products and that they are “a long way from ready to go public.”
Richard: A lot of states are looking to raise their minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, this evil move will cost a lot of jobs and the businesses that can afford to do so will start replacing human workers with robots. Which may be what the left wants, this would make a lot of money for their high tech contributors and would place more people on welfare where they can be expected to support the Dems.
“There have long been predictions that advances in artificial intelligence and automation could end up eliminating millions of jobs over time, and tech companies have been testing robots to carry out a variety of tasks — from working in a pizza parlor to making deliveries that could greatly affect the services industry in the future.
First of all, please do not make the mistake of thinking that humans have managed to create AI (Artificial Intelligence). Our world is still many years, if not many decades from functional AI.
For the sake of pseudoscience glamor language, media morons conflate AI with what we have at present, which are Expert Systems (ES). A good example is in hospitals, where a medical technician can input easily acquired parameters—such as body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, blood oxygen level, and overall visual appearance—so that an Expert System can then correlate these factors with a wide variety of possible diagnoses.
From the link:
——————————-
11.2 Capabilities of Expert Systems: General View
The most important applied area of AI is the field of expert systems. An expert system (ES) is a knowledge-based system that employs knowledge about its application domain and uses an inferencing (reason) procedure to solve problems that would otherwise require human competence or expertise. The power of expert systems stems primarily from the specific knowledge about a narrow domain stored in the expert system’s knowledge base.
It is important to stress to students that expert systems are assistants to decision makers and not substitutes for them. Expert systems do not have human capabilities. They use a knowledge base of a particular domain and bring that knowledge to bear on the facts of the particular situation at hand. The knowledge base of an ES also contains heuristic knowledge – rules of thumb used by human experts who work in the domain.
——————————-
None of which changes a far more fundamental issue. A recent Oxford study has predicted that “computerization” (note how they do not refer to AI or ES), will cause a massive dislocation in US employment.
See: Report Suggests Nearly Half of U.S. Jobs Are Vulnerable to Computerization
Now for the really bad news. As Richard noted, attempts at raising the national minimum wage to $15 per hour will merely accelerate the rate at which automation (especially) will intrude into the workplace. As has been the case throughout history, the least skilled workers will be most vulnerable to replacement.
One need only to study the Jacquard loom and the subsequent Luddite movement for a solid example of what’s coming. There already exist pizza-making and hamburger assembly robots. It is merely an issue of when the minimum wage becomes sufficiently high to where automation (however expensive) represents a viable economic option.
As former McDonald’s USA CEO Ed Rensi said, “it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries”. Already, McDonald’s is testing out touch-screen ordering systems that eliminate any need for human order-takers.
All of which leads to the Gini coefficient. Frequently used to measure income inequality, it is most often applied to international comparisons but also can serve to examine rural versus urban earnings and even wealth disparity within a given state, county or city.
In places where the Gini coefficient is relatively flat (i.e., little income inequality), crime statistics usually are somewhat modest. As in, nobody has anything that anyone else wants to steal. Where there is very high income disparity, that’s when the murder statistics begin to skyrocket.
Try to imagine what happens when 50% of all the minimum wage jobs disappear. We will not be able to build the prisons quickly enough. Whatever money automation saves society will be canceled by costs of incarceration. None of which will matter to the financial 1% (i.e., elite). They will pocket their profits whilst the general public is saddled with the expense of constructing and operating all those new penitentiaries.
If you do not think that prisons are too expensive, consider this. At present (ranked as a separate nation) California is the number six economy in the entire world. Conservative estimates for what the state’s penal system costs hover around 10%. Other analyses can go as high as 33%. That’s between one tenth and one third of a $2.496 trillion (2015 numbers) GDP being sucked down—between $60,000 and $70,000 per year per inmate—by providing three hots and a cot to convicted criminals.
This is where the parasitic and predatory greed of the global 1% has gone totally out of control and why Socialists like Bernie Sanders are able to get any traction. If we, as a society, cannot figure out how to resolve this looming (so to speak) employment crisis, there awaits a dystopian vision that will make “1984” and “Brave New World” look like fairy tales.
To get a better idea of the costs look at the wages and benefits that the prison staff make, this will be 2.3rds of the cost of running the prison. The capital expense of building the prison can be deprecated over the (at a rough guess) 30+ year life of the prison.
Wages and benefits are 2/3rds of the cost of any business.
Of course in a Government run facility the wages and benefits may well be higher do to governmental inefficiency and patronage.
California’s DoC (Department of Corrections) officers’ union is one of the most powerful in the state. For decades they have managed to discourage new hires as part of creating massive overtime requirements. There are unconfirmed reports of some senior officers pulling down +$100K per year.
This will still put it in the 2/3rds area, most benefits are based on base pay with overtime pay not considered. I would have to see the contracts and the books to get a better idea of the actual percentage. I’ll bet they don’t want us to see either.
After Trump tweets, US to announce plans to cancel aid to Pakistan (abcnews, Jan 4, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-tweets-us-announce-plans-cancel-aid-pakistan/story?id=52125905
“The Trump administration will announce plans to “cancel” security assistance to Pakistan, a congressional source confirms to ABC News after State Department officials called Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to inform members of Congress.
The move comes as President Trump has ramped up his criticism of the unsteady American ally in tweets that blasted the country for giving the U.S. “nothing but lies & deceit.”
Pakistan is a key partner in the fight against terrorism, but the U.S. has also accused it of supporting terror groups like the Haqqani Network, an independent division of the Taliban responsible for multiple attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
The State Department declined to comment, as did White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders during her briefing Wednesday, saying, “We’ll continue to keep you posted as those decisions are finalized.”…”
Turkey calls US trial of Turkish banker ‘legal disgrace’ (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-us-trial-turkish-banker-legal-disgrace-52132050
“Turkey on Thursday slammed the conviction in New York of a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade sanctions as a “legal disgrace.”…”
Russia warns US not to meddle in Iran during protests (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-warns-us-meddle-iran-protests-52133222
“A top Russian diplomat is warning the United States not to meddle in Iran’s affairs as the country is rattled by protests and says Washington wants to use the unrest to undermine the Iran nuclear agreement.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made the comments Thursday to state news agency Tass.
“We warn the U.S. against attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said…”
Strength of Iran protests uncertain after a week of unrest (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/claims-iran-protests-subside-week-unrest-52131565
“The strength of protests shaking Iran was unclear on Thursday after a week of unrest that killed at least 21 people, with fewer reports of demonstrations as government supporters again took to the streets in several cities and towns.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the drop in reports of new demonstrations challenging Iran’s theocratic government meant the protests are subsiding or that the authorities’ blocking of social media apps has managed to stop protesters from offering new images of rallies.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration acknowledged the speed and breadth of the protests took both it and the Iranian government by surprise.
The past week’s protests have been the largest in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, which ended in bloodshed. While many Iranians denounce the violence that has accompanied some demonstrations, they echo the protesters’ frustration over the weak economy and official corruption.
Thousands rallied on Thursday in support of the government in various towns and cities, including in the northeastern city of Mashhad, where the anti-government protests began last week and extended to other cities.
State television repeatedly broadcast nationalistic songs and described the pro-government rallies as an “answer to rioters and supporters to the riot.” That appeared to be a reference to President Donald Trump who tweeted in support of anti-government rallies.
The TV also broadcast footage of similar pro-government gatherings Thursday in the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Ardabil, Birjand and Yasuj…”
Chinese President Xi Jinping orders army to prepare for WAR in chilling footage
THIS is the concerning moment Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed his military forces amid rising tensions between the United States and North Korea.
In the clip, filmed in Central Theatre Command on Wednesday, more than 7,000 Chinese servicemen await Xi’s New Year orders.
As the camera pans through the crowd, it gives an insight into how regimented the world’s largest army is.
Speaking in front of thousands of troops and over 300 perfectly organised military vehicles, Xi – the Communist Party’s General Secretary – ordered his forces to prepare for the event of war.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/671371/China-President-Xi-Jinping-prepares-army-for-war-USA-North-Korea-WW3-Nuclear-missile-video
“In the clip, filmed in Central Theatre Command on Wednesday, more than 7,000 Chinese servicemen await Xi’s New Year orders.
As the camera pans through the crowd, it gives an insight into how regimented the world’s largest army is.”
Let’s count how many wars most of these troops have fought in … ZERO!
What about influential factors like unit cohesion or the number of live-fire exercises these soldiers have experienced?
Whether this report is the product of Chinese or Western Propaganda Media, it’s a steaming heap of taurine fecal matter.
Should We Be Afraid of China’s Military? | China Uncensored
America’s Billion Dollar Weapons Sale to Taiwan | China Uncensored
China’s Military Patrolling in Afghanistan? | China Uncensored
How China’s Deep State Helped Nuclear North Korea | China Uncensored
The last war the Chinese Army fought was the brief incursion into Nam in the 70s. There are a lot of reports that they ran into trouble going up against the combat vets in the Nam Army. These are even more combat virgins, there are no vets from the war with India or the Nam incursion left on active and give the life span in China there may not be any alive.
Add that to the economic problems and you can see why China doesn’t want to fight a war over North Korea. This is why the artillery they are deploying to the border are being put into combat positions back from the border. This could be to provide support for a Chinese invasion of the North but is probably to make it clear that the South and the US had better stay on the South side of the border.
It would be interesting to know how many Russian units are along the border with Manchuria? Is Putin land hungry or is he willing to wait until China falls apart?
Afghan official: Taliban kill 3 people in country’s west (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-taliban-kill-people-countrys-west-52132692
“An Afghan official says the Taliban have shot and killed three people in western Farah province.
Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor, says the attack unfolded when a group of Taliban fighters stopped a bus travelling in the Bala Buluk district on Thursday.
The Taliban searched the bus and spotted three members of the Afghan security forces. The insurgents then seized the three, took them of the bus and killed them, leaving their bodies by the road.
Mheri says the authorities have deployed security forces to patrol the highway around the clock for the safety of travelers.
The Taliban have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack or made any statements about it.”
2 Russian soldiers killed in attack on air base in Syria (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-soldiers-killed-attack-air-base-syria-52132393
“Russia’s Defense Ministry says two of its soldiers were killed in a mortar attack on the Russian air base in Syria.
The ministry says the attack on the Hemeimeem base took place on Sunday and that it was carried out by a “mobile sabotage group” of fighters.
Thursday’s reports by the state news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti did not specify the attackers’ affiliation or say if they were members of a specific rebel or militant group in Syria.
Russian forces also lost a helicopter in a Sunday crash in Syria that killed one of the two pilots. The ministry said a technical fault caused the crash and that the Mi-24 did not come under fire.”
Turkey seeks to detain 70 officers suspected of coup links (abcnews, Jan 4, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-seeks-detain-70-officers-suspected-coup-links-52131875
“Turkey’s state-run news agency says warrants have been issued for the detention of 70 military officers suspected of links to a network led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Anadolu Agency said prosecutors in the central Turkish province of Konya issued warrants against 58 officers still on active duty as well as 12 officers who were previously sacked from the armed forces.
Police operations to detain the suspects were underway in 27 provinces, the agency reported.
Turkey accuses Gulen of masterminding a military coup attempt in July 2016. Gulen denies the accusation.
Turkey declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown after the coup, resulting in some 50,000 arrests and the dismissal of more than 110,000 people from state jobs, including the military.”
Iranian army commander offers to help police with protests
DUBAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Iran’s army chief said on Thursday police forces had already quelled anti-government unrest that has killed 21 people but that his troops were ready to intervene if needed, official media reported, as new state-sponsored pro-government rallies were held.
The anti-government demonstrations, which seem to be spontaneous and without a clear leader, erupted a week ago in Iran’s second city of Mashhad over economic hardships – mostly youth unemployment and alleged corruption.
“Although this blind sedition was so small that a portion of the police force was able to nip it in the bud … you can rest assured that your comrades in the Islamic Republic’s army would be ready to confront the dupes of the Great Satan (United States),” Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi was quoted as saying.
As the unrest spread across the country, protesters saying they were tired of anti-Western slogans and that it was time for both the clerical leadership and the government of President Hassan Rouhani to step down.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180104074113-oiizt
Nissan unveils technology that can interpret signals from drivers’ brains
Nissan says it has developed technology enabling vehicles to interpret signals from a driver’s brain.
Nissan claims to have developed a car that can read its driver’s mind.
Software adapted from the medical profession is translating a driver’s thoughts into action to improve vehicle responsiveness. The technology will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.
The software monitors brain wave activity to anticipate intended movement, be that turning the steering wheel or hitting the brakes. Nissan says the system can react between 0.2-0.5 second faster than the driver without being considered intrusive.
The B2V technology is meant to make driving more enjoyable in a semi-autonomous world by speeding up reaction times and having vehicles that constantly adapt to their owner’s driving style.
Nissan vice-president Daniele Schillaci says the software takes connectivity to the next level.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/motoring-news/nissan-unveils-technology-that-can-interpret-signals-from-drivers-brains/news-story/6ae5b3100c6b41eb3a9fceb2b2b9e06b
Top-selling German newspaper says new online hate speech law must be scrapped
BERLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) – A new law meant to curtail hate speech on social media in Germany is stifling free speech and making martyrs out of anti-immigrant politicians whose posts are deleted, the top-selling Bild newspaper said on Thursday.
The law which took effect on Jan. 1 can impose fines of up to 50 million euros ($60 million) on sites that fail to remove hate speech promptly. Twitter has deleted anti-Muslim and anti-migrant posts by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and blocked a satirical account that parodied Islamophobia.
“Please spare us the thought police!” read a headline in Wednesday’s Bild above an article that called the law a “sin” against freedom of opinion enshrined in Germany’s constitution.
The law requires social media sites to delete or block obviously criminal content within 24 hours but Bild Editor-in-Chief Julian Reichelt said it could be applied against anything and anyone since there was no definition of what was “manifestly unlawful” in most cases.
Intended to prevent radical groups from gaining influence, it was having precisely the opposite effect, he said.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180104113147-as99y
German court rules transsexual woman can’t be ‘mother’
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s top court has ruled that a transsexual woman whose frozen sperm was used to fertilize an egg can only be registered as the child’s father.
The Federal Court said Thursday it rejected the woman’s appeal against a lower court ruling preventing her from being legally listed as the child’s mother.
The woman changed sex in 2012 and her partner gave birth to a child three years later, having used the plaintiff’s sperm.
The registry office refused to list the sperm donor as the mother.
The Federal Court said judges concluded “the transsexual person’s fundamental rights aren’t breached by the fact that existing ancestry law assigns her the legal status of parent according to her former sex and the specific contribution to procreation that resulted from this.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-court-rules-transsexual-woman-cant-mother-090702849.html
Cash-Strapped Venezuela Offers to Pay for Medicines With Diamonds
Pharma executives express doubt over proposal in face of government’s past failure to pay bills; barter spreads among populace for lack of currency
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cash-strapped-venezuela-offers-to-pay-for-medicines-with-diamonds-1515061800
Muslims in U.S. Grew to 1.1% of Population in 2017
January 4, 2018
OAN Newsroom
Researchers say Islam will replace Judaism as America’s second largest religious group by 2040.
On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center estimated Muslims make up one-percent of the U.S. population in 2017 — at 3.4 million people.
In the past decade, the Muslim population in the U.S. has grown by one million people.
Experts say this is mostly due to immigration and not conversion.
The Muslim population is growing much faster compared to the Jewish people, and the population is expected to double within 30 years.
http://www.oann.com/muslims-in-u-s-grew-to-1-1-of-population-in-2017/
1.1%! the idiots in DC are letting a small minority like this set US policy!
U.S. military warns against getting hopes up over North Korean overture
SEOUL (Reuters) – The head of U.S. forces in South Korea warned on Thursday against raising hopes over North Korea’s peace overture amid a war of words between the United States and the reclusive North over its nuclear and missile programs.
In a New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was open to dialogue with U.S. ally South Korea and could send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be held in the South in February.
Kim also warned that he would push ahead with “mass producing” nuclear warheads, pursuing a weapons program in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
In response, Seoul on Tuesday proposed high-level talks at a border village and on Wednesday, the two Koreas reopened a border hotline that had been closed since February 2016.
“We must keep our expectations at the appropriate level,” the chief of United States Forces Korea (USFK), Vincent Brooks, was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in an address to a university in Seoul.
http://www.oann.com/u-s-military-warns-against-getting-hopes-up-over-north-korean-overture/
Migrants Protest Living Conditions in Italian Mountain Welcome Center (breitbart, Jan 4, 2018)
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/04/migrants-protest-living-conditions-in-italian-mountain-welcome-center/
“Dozens of African asylum-seekers took to the streets this week to protest the conditions in their Italian welcome center, including the lack of variety in the food, insufficient medical facilities and issues of cleanliness and hygiene.
The migrant welcome center of Arcinazzo, not far to the south of Rome, is housed in a former tourist resort in this sparsely populated mountain town in the Appenines. There are only some 200 Italian residents left in the town, where the 134 migrants now make up almost half the population.
On Tuesday, the migrants marched in the streets to protest their situation, made worse, they say, by chilly winter temperatures.
Local inhabitants told Italian media that the town itself lacks some essential services, including police and medical services.
This is not the first time that migrants have complained of their less-than-ideal living conditions in Italy’s welcome centers…”
We interrupt the booming economy and Iranian uprising for some urgent Bannon gossip
By J.E. Dyer January 3, 2018
Is anyone else at the point where you know it won’t pay to pursue the mainstream media’s Distracter of the Day any further, and you’re just not going to?
Maybe, if the MSM reported that there actually was a nuclear weapon launched from Commie Jackwagonistan, it would be worth a quick fact check.
But short of that, there seems to be less and less reason to give my precious time to some theme being flogged about (combine two or more):
(1) Insanity
(2) Offensive comments
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/03/interrupt-booming-economy-iranian-uprising-urgent-bannon-gossip/
Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi urges protesters to stay on the streets (alaraby, Jan 4, 2018)
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/1/4/iranian-nobel-peace-laureate-ebadi-urges-protesters-to-continue
“Iran’s most famous human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has urged anti-government protesters to stay on the streets.
Iranians should engage in civil disobedience, Ebadi was quoted as saying in Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat.
“If the government has not listened to you for 38 years, your role has come to ignore what the government says to you now,” she said…”
ICE Director: Charge Sanctuary Cities for Violating Law
Donald Trump’s pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued warned California to “hang on tight” as he threatened a crackdown on sanctuary cities, also suggesting politicians who shelter illegal aliens should be charged with crimes.
The department’s acting director Thomas Homan on Tuesday evening spoke of a crackdown on places that maintain sanctuary status, meaning there is a limit on how far local law enforcement will aid ICE officials.
In particular, Homan pledged California would see more ICE agents following its governor’s October decision to give the entire state such status.
“We gotta take [sanctuary cities] to court, and we gotta start charging some of these politicians with crimes,” Homan said in an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, explaining he believed politicians who pushed sanctuary city legislation should be held “personally accountable” for their actions.
http://www.libertyheadlines.com/acting-ice-director-charge-sanctuary-cities-violating-law/?AID=7236
“Washington sues Motel 6 for giving guest info to ICE agents”
By Associated Press – January 4, 2018
https://nypost.com/2018/01/04/washington-sues-motel-6-for-giving-guest-info-to-ice-agents/
Another left wing judicial overreach. There might be some privacy issues there but since Federal Law outranks State law the State can’t file any charges. They are trying to use civil courts to punish the chain to scare others into not cooperating with ICE. If Motel 6 holds tough the Supreme Court will throw any decision against Motel 6 out.
Is Hezbollah Eating the Iranian People’s Bread?
by Yves Mamou
January 4, 2018 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11666/iran-hezbollah-financing
In the holy city of Qom in Iran, on December 30, 2017, anti-regime demonstrators shouted “Death to Hezbollah”, “Aren’t you ashamed Khamenei? Get out of Syria and take care of us”, and “Not Gaza, or Lebanon”.
In an Islamic country, whose official slogan is “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, to see Iranian people shouting “Death to Hezbollah” is totally surreal.
By wishing “Death to Hezbollah”, Iranians demonstrators were not only protesting a “rise of the price of eggs” as the Ayatollahs’ propaganda machine tried to claim. The demonstrators were demanding that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spend Iranian money for Iranian people — and only for Iranian people.
Ironically, Iran’s receiving more than $100 billion in frozen assets for the hapless “nuclear deal” succeeded in breaking the solidarity between Iranian people and the Ayatollahs’ regime better than the sanctions did. During the tough time of sanctions, the Iranian people stood by their leaders. The people only broke with their leaders when they saw that the “liberated” money was benefiting everyone but them.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11666/iran-hezbollah-financing
Iran Sends More to the Gallows
by Denis MacEoin
January 4, 2018 at 4:30 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11674/iran-political-prisoners
At the end of December 2017, something almost without precedent happened in cities across Iran. It started in the largest shrine city of Mashhad, then moved to Kermanshah, which had not long before suffered a major earthquake in which some 600 people died and where survivors had been neglected by the state. After that, large-scale protests moved to Sari and Rasht in the north, the clerical city of Qom, then Hamadan, and by the December 29, Tehran itself. In the following days, people were on the streets across the country. Starting on the third day, protesters were challenged by massive turnouts of pro-regime marchers. Anti-government protests, which these were, had not been seen in this quantity since the brutally-crushed risings after the 2009 presidential elections. By January 2, at least 20 protesters had been killed and more than 450 arrested. It was reported on the same day that Iran’s Chief Justice, Mousa Ghazanfarabadi, claimed that protesters might be considered “enemies of God”, and executed.
On his website, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Egypt: State-Run Media vs. President el-Sisi
by A. Z. Mohamed
January 4, 2018 at 4:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11678/egypt-state-media
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital with cautious pessimism. He warned his ally in the White House not to take measures that would undermine prospects for peace in the Middle East. The delicate balancing act he has been performing, to avoid jeopardizing his relationship with Washington, and at the same time not antagonize the Palestinians and much of the Egyptian public, was probably to be expected.
Not expected was the depth of extremist anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment spread by Egypt’s state-run media. Two particularly jarring examples illustrate this disturbing trend.
The first was from television host Ahmed Moussa, on the Sada Elbalad network, who proceeded to denounce the United States as the world’s bully, an international thug that supposedly both manages terrorism and manipulates it to justify its policies. He claimed that it was Egypt that led the world against Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, and that the U.S. was trying to control Egypt by lodging false accusations of human rights violations and discrimination against Christians. He actually said this in spite of “what have now become regular assaults by Islamic militants on the country’s Coptic community.”
Travis Allen rips Jerry Brown Over Sanctuary State Law
Is China Still Communist?
“Is China Still Communist?”
In all of the most meaningful aspects … unequivocally, YES!
Whatever scraps of free market activity there may be, the vast majority of economic activity remains state controlled in one respect or another.
It is only a matter of time before this centrally planned mare’s nest tanks. Smart companies are bailing out of the Mainland now instead of waiting for the crash.
Combine communist corruption with the massive bad debt and the derivatives (shadow banking) in China and you have an economic crash waiting to destroy the communist government. This is another reason the Chinese will not fight us when we are forced to take out North Korea.
I feel sorry for who ever ends up having to pay for the enviromental clean up and attempt to reverse the massive problems caused by communist stupidity.
Iranian prostester burning the koran
The “People’s War” Against China’s Muslims | China Uncensored
OT/ Wicked blizzard => day off!
Play day!
Hold the fort, be good, and stay safe!
Y
I told a friends you were doing your happy dance because of a snow day.
Germany: Refugee rescuers in court to stop far-right Pegida posts
Refugee rescuers Mission Lifeline went to Dresden district court on Thursday in a bid to stop the far-right Pegida movement from sharing defamatory posts on social media.
SOT, Axel Steier, head of Mission Lifeline NGO (German): “We could show that our opponents have stated wrong facts and we are positive that the court is going to decide in favour of us.”
SOT, Axel Steier, head of Mission Lifeline NGO (German): “Everything with Pegida’s claims is wrong. We did not breach Libya’s territorial waters, we are not smugglers and we are not cooperating with smugglers. We need to distance ourselves clearly because it jeopardises our reputation.”
SOT, Axel Steier, head of Mission Lifeline NGO (German): “Normally we cruise 24 miles from Libya’s coast – clear from international waters, which start within 12 miles – and we are looking for emergencies there or we get reports of such emergencies by combat vessels, other rescue vessels or the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome. Then, we contact the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre coordinating every step we take and then we procced to rescuing people actively.”
They must be hitting a sore spot for the traitors to take them to court.
The Hidden Truth of Tiananmen Square | China Uncensored
CBC – Why did Justin Trudeau meet with Joshua Boyle?
A recent meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Joshua Boyle is raising concerns given the criminal charges Boyle now faces. Shortly after their rescue from Taliban captivity, Boyle and his family were seen meeting with Trudeau. Now people are questioning whether Trudeau should have even met with Boyle.
the rebel – Exposed: Joshua Boyle Met With Trudeau During Alleged Crime Spree
Turkey removes opposition party mayor from office – ministry statement (reuters, Jan 4, 2018)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-turkey-politics/turkey-removes-opposition-party-mayor-from-office-ministry-statement-idUKKBN1ET1UF
“Turkey’s Interior Ministry removed the opposition mayor of Istanbul’s Besiktas municipality from office on Thursday, accusing him of links to the 2016 attempted coup and corruption.
In a statement, it said police were investigating Murat Hazinedar’s alleged links to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the plot.
Hazinedar, a member of the secular main opposition Republic People Party (CHP), denies any link to Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement in the attempted coup.
At a news conference, Hazinedar called on President Tayyip Erdogan to “get his hands off my family”, after his wife and son were barred from travelling abroad due to the investigations.
The ministry said it had also removed two other members of the council in Besiktas, one of the largest municipalities in Turkey’s biggest city of Istanbul.
The move against Hazinedar marked the second time the ministry has removed a CHP mayor from office since its chairman in November accused members of Erdogan’s family of transferring $14 million to a company in the Isle of Man.
Erdogan denied and dismissed the accusations as lies, and has since taken CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu to court, saying he would “pay the price”…”
Poland lists child sex offenders online (BBC, Jan 4, 2018)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42566496
“The Polish government says a new public online register with data on convicted paedophiles is a “breakthrough tool” to protect children.
Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wos said the register would enable parents to check if any paedophiles were living in their area.
Personal data on 768 paedophiles, including ID photos, can be viewed on the Polish justice ministry website.
Critics say such open disclosure can make it harder for paedophiles to reintegrate into society after serving their sentence. It can also put them at risk of vigilante attacks, some argue.
The Polish register gives details of each paedophile’s crimes and sentencing, date and place of birth and home district.
Polish public broadcaster TVP says they are mainly paedophiles who have raped children aged under 15, some of whom acted with particular cruelty…”
The Unstoppable Epidemic Could Start in China | China Uncensored
Just one more reason to boycott Communist Chinese goods wherever and whenever possible.
The USA must move immediately to ban imports of Red Chinese tilapia. It also would be prudent to halt immigration from Communist China as well.
The biggest problem being that Colistin-tainted foods are still being exported to other countries whose people can immigrate to the West.
Yet another motive to crush Communist China’s economy right away.
I don’t think we need to do much to the Chinese economy, they seem to be doing enough on their own.
As I said above once the crash comes the Chinese Communist Government is done. We do need to help Taiwan and others to correct the environmental damage that the Commies have done but it will have to be done on their dime. We are going to have our hands full with the mess in other locations caused by the collapse of China and many other nations when their economy collapses.
Back when SARS started I thought we were facing a new plague that would massivly reduce the population. That plague was stopped but this info tells us that another one is building in China, it may not start in China but part of the cause will be the Chinese misuse of antibiotics. I don’t know what we can do to stop the shipments of fish from that region, China will sell to Indonesia who will sell to the Philippines who will sell to us.
$90M Vaccine Scandal | China Uncensored
“Smithfield Foods’ Chinese Owner Eyes Beef, Poultry Assets in US, Europe” Newsmax – June 8, 2017
https://www.newsmax.com/Finance/Companies/smithfield-foods-china-wh-group/2017/06/08/id/794975/
If you have the stomach for it, check out the YT channel – pig and chicken slaughter machines. Warning, you’ll never eat those little piggies again.
Speaking of piggies, meet Arnold the Therapy Pig.
Every college snowflake and “safe place” needs to add a little piggy 🙂
American Mini Pig Education
http://americanminipigassociation.com/owners/helpful-owner-articles/therapy-mini-pig/
Pet Away Worry and Stress at the University of Minnesota
Until my Grandparents died I helped slaughter and butcher pigs every winter. I also was killing and cleaning chickens from childhood. I doubt the video will stop me from eating them.
They are sickening to any country kid.
“Processing American Chicken In China: Smart Business Or Ruthless Profiteering?” By Panos Mourdoukoutas, advocate of globalization and free trade – July 19, 2015
Excerpt:
Nonetheless, I cannot help but add my voice to all of those who are concerned about a peculiar trade between the US and China that followed China’s entry to WTO — and which received the blessings of USDA recently — the export of American-raised chickens to China for processing and then re-import to America.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2015/07/19/processing-american-chicken-in-china-smart-business-or-ruthless-profiteering/#569d347cc20e
“USDA Approves Import of Poultry Processed in China”
By Christian Gomez – September 26, 2013
https://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/sectors/item/16629-usda-approves-import-of-poultry-processed-in-china
Despite his well-meaning intent, “China Uncensored” host, Chris Chappel, manages to overlook an event that makes both the SARS virus, vaccine scandal, and (to a lesser extent) the antibiotics overuse crisis pale by comparison.
Few people are aware of how Communist China’s Henan Province is the epicenter of this world’s LARGEST MEDICALLY-CAUSED HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC.
Yes, you read that right. Here’s an excerpt from the above link:
——————
Hidden from the world, a village dies of Aids while China refuses to face a growing crisis
Chang Sun’s wife is HIV positive. So is his mother. So is his aunt. So is his cousin and his cousin’s wife. So is the woman next door and, probably, so is her husband. In fact, it is quite possible that almost every adult and many of the children in his small, remote village are infected.
And then, there are those who lie in the flat, brown vegetable fields, which are steadily filling with mossy green burial mounds.
Among them is Chang’s father, who died of Aids last year, and his three-year-old daughter, who succumbed the year before that. His first wife is there too – she threw herself down the village well in 2000 after a doctor told her she was no longer worth treating because she had the virus.
Another plot will soon be needed. As we walk furtively to Chang’s home under cover of darkness, the crackling of firewood in a neighbour’s yard reminds him that a traditional wake is being held for the latest son to be lost to the disease, the 10th victim in the village this year.
“It is our custom for strong male adults to carry the coffin, but so many people are sick or dead that there aren’t enough of us left,” says the 35-year-old farmer. “So now it is the old people who are doing the burying.”
——————
Welcome to the “blood heads”. These shameless murderers ran the mobile plasma collection stations that roamed Henan, one of the world’s poorest regions. An 800cc donation paid villagers less than $5.00, but that was enough to feed a family for a week.
People would line up day after day. However, there was no way that they could avoid anemia from such constant donations. Instead, the blood heads would segregate donors by blood type and then, after centrifuging out the plasma, divide up the aggregated red corpuscles and re-inject them back into the donors.
Hey, presto! If one person in a blood-type, donor group had HIV/AIDS, now everyone got the gift that keeps on giving.
Of far greater importance was how, at that time, government issued condoms were nearly useless. A Western prophylactic could cost up to a week’s wages. Even more insane is that, then, less than 20% of China’s population had the slightest understanding of “safe sex”.
Finally, with the declining requirement for “mobility” (or “regional transit”) passes, there has been a huge migration from rural areas to urban centers for higher wages. These newly arrived (and HIV/AIDS infected), poorly-educated manual laborers are the ultimate carriers with respect to vectoring this epidemic.
To close (from: How I Discovered the HIV Epidemic and What Happened to Me Afterwards:
“The leaders from the provincial Department of Health asked me, “How come you could discover AIDS while others didn’t?” I understood very well that they wanted me to keep it secret, because exposing the epidemic would botch their job evaluation as officials. Dismayed, I said, “I hope you don’t upbraid me for now. You should go visiting the 17 stations of plasma collection that are collecting blood as we speak. In these 17 stations, there are at least 500 people who are being infected by hepatitis C and HIV every day.” According to newspaper reports at the time, Henan province alone had almost 400 stations of plasma collection, and most of the blood used in hospitals came from these stations. It was impossible to know how many hospital patients had been infected with hepatitis C and HIV. A police officer got hepatitis C from transfusion he received after being wounded in a chase. He and his family were deeply upset about it.”
Communist China is second-to-none when it comes to engendering large-scale and fatal epidemics.
Epilogue: AIDS Still Ravages China, New Book Reveals.
India: Government cuts Muslim holidays at religious schools in Uttar Pradesh (independent, Jan 4, 2018)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/indian-government-muslim-holidays-cut-uttar-pradesh-state-religious-institutions-a8141631.html
“The government in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has cut the number of discretionary holidays around Muslim festivals in religious schools, while making it compulsory for them to remain closed on some festivals of other faiths.
Previously, Muslim institutions in the state were only required to close during the major national, non-Muslim festivals of Ambedkar Jayanti and Holi.
The new annual calendar proposes that madrassas now shut for celebrations such as Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, the Times of India reported.
The institutions will also be shut on Mahavir Jayanti – a festival in Jainism – as well as during the Hindu festival of Dussehra and at Christmas.
The calendar proposes the number of recognised dates in the Islamic calendar cut from 10 to four.
Registrar of the UP Madrassa Board Rahul Gupta, told the Times of India: “The 10-day holiday used to be at madrassas’ discretion, but now this is predetermined and distributed round the birthdays of great leaders.
“It’s important for students to know who these people were.“
Eijaz Ahmed, president of the Islamic Madarsa Modernisation Teachers’ Association, said: “Madrassas are religious institutions that do require different kinds of leave around a number of minority events for which the former discretionary leave was used.
“There is no problem in addition of holidays of other faiths, but it is totally wrong to cut down the ten discretionary special leaves.””
WeChat: The App That’s Always Watching You | China Uncensored
Anyone who thinks that Apple, Alphabet (especially), Microsoft, and most other ISPs do not collect user information at levels similar to WeChat needs to have their head examined.
Just your credit card use and records permit a degree of activity monitoring that would stun most people beyond belief. Plug in your cell phone records and it all coalesces into something that makes Big Brother look rather benevolent.
In fact, mere sensor data (i.e., accelerometer readings, GPS coordinates, and other detector activity) from your “smart” phone can facilitate hackers in their quest to extract your PIN and password. See: Hackers could guess your phone PIN using its sensor data.
Those who think that they are immune to digital surveillance are the very next cohort of online victims.
Mass rally in Pyongyang in support of Kim’s New Year message
How is This a Thing? 4th of January 2018
U.S. places Pakistan on watch list for religious freedom violations (reuters, Jan 4, 2018)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-religion/u-s-places-pakistan-on-watch-list-for-religious-freedom-violations-idUSKBN1ET1OA
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom,” it said on Thursday, days after the White House said Islamabad would have to do more to combat terrorism to receive U.S. aid.
The State Department also said it had re-designated 10 other nations as “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated egregious violations of religious freedom.
The re-designated countries were China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They were re-designated on Dec. 22.
“The protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability, and prosperity,” the department said in a statement. “These designations are aimed at improving the respect for religious freedom in these countries.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Pakistan for not doing more to combat terrorism, and his administration has informed members of Congress that it will announce plans to end “security assistance” payments to the country…”
Blast hits Afghan capital Kabul, casualties feared – police (reuters, Jan 4, 2018)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-afghanistan-blast/blast-hits-afghan-capital-kabul-casualties-feared-police-idUKKBN1ET1YE?rpc=401&
“An suicide attack hit an area of the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, officials and witnesses said, causing casualties among nearby security personnel.
A Reuters reporter saw a police vehicle carrying dead or wounded security personnel, in an area close to a police operation against illegal drug and alcohol dealers.”
Yemen: Children hit by diphtheria outbreak (BBC, vid, Jan 4, 2018)
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-42561563/yemen-children-hit-by-diphtheria-outbreak